OBX

I loved how nature takes charge on the Outer Banks: I felt like I was in Shakespeare's Tempest a great deal of the time. These islands are shifting sand dunes, moving constantly.

We rode a ferry for two hours from Cedar Island to Okracoke.

This photo shows how we lined up in the morning: cars on the left, medium-size rigs in the middle - that's me - and large-size rigs on the right. The Homeland Security people came by checking license plates randomly,

On top deck people enjoyed the view even though it was windy.

I liked relaxing in the car enjoying the view from there.

This was our campground set in the dunes at Okracoke. The Atlantic Ocean waves broke on the shore behind me.

When I turned around I saw this.

I gathered some nice shells on the beach here.

Tucked away from the main road, and sitting amid historic homes, a British naval flag flies over this plot of land, which is leased to the British government so long as the sailors rest there. In 1942 Germans torpedoed a British boat that was helping America by patrolling the Outer Banks and the bodies that washed up on shore were buried here.

Ocracoke Inlet was first placed on the map when English explorers wrecked a sailing ship there in 1585. Two centuries later, this was one of the busiest inlets on the East Coast.
Ocracoke Village developed as a result of the inlet’s use. Pilots, hired to steer ships safely through the shifting channels to mainland ports, settled the village in the 1730s.

The U.S. Lighthouse Service recognized that a lighthouse was needed to assist mariners through Ocracoke Inlet. In 1794, construction began. The Ocracoke Lighthouse was completed in 1823.

Unfortunately, the lighthouse, a great blessing to mariners, was obsolete in less than 20 years due to the migration of the main channel. By 1818, the channel had shifted nearly a mile away. That same year, both the lighthouse and keeper’s house were destroyed by lightning.

In 1822, for a charge of $50, the federal government purchased two acres at the south end of Ocracoke Island as the site for a new lighthouse. Finished in 1823, the tower still stands today.

The waters off North Carolina's Outer Banks entomb thousands of vessels and countless mariners who lost a desperate struggle against the forces of war, piracy and nature. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum tells these stories.

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